Your Morning Dump… Where no news is good news

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

Negotiators met for six hours on Wednesday at a hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It was just the second bargaining session since July 1, and the longest in many months. If the duration was a sign of progress or a reason for optimism, neither side would say so — at least in part because they have promised to keep the negotiations private.

“We’ve just decided it’s not in anyone’s best interest to get into what actually happens in the meetings from this point on,” Derek Fisher, the president of the National Basketball Players Association, said after emerging from the meeting just after 4 p.m.

David Stern and Adam Silver, the commissioner and deputy commissioner, spoke 15 minutes later and echoed Fisher’s sentiments. It was their first public agreement on anything in some time.

“The important thing is our agreement with the union not to say what we discussed, other than to say that we’re continuing to have meetings,” Stern said. “And I think that the best way for us to get to a deal is to continue with that, rather than just satisfy curiosity” of the public.

So the posturing is over, the slings and arrows have been put away, and the negotiations are now being kept private. Nice first steps here. You know, if these guys had maybe met a little sooner, maybe we could have seen this progress a month ago.

And Stern can save the "satisfy curiosity" bull. He doesn't give a damn about us and our curiosity. The only time he spoke was to satisfy himself and deliver messages to the players union through the media. Not once was Stern being magnanimous and saying "gentlemen, the public's curiosity needs to be satisfied. Me MUST make a statement." The only time he ever spoke was to mention how the league was hemorrhaging money.

Can it, Dave. You guys just get your asses back into that room and start talking. If we're lucky, we might be able to save a season here.